I went to my local gamestop and purchased a 16 gig iPad for 289.99 not a bad price i thought but the deal go better and better gamestop gave me a 50.00 itunes card for free for purchasing the ipad i dont really care about having a camera on the ipad so i purchased the ipad 1

Here are my questions and concerns.

1. how long does it take a ipad 1 to charge and will it charge via usb charger without it being on or if i turn the ipad off will it stop charging the device while it is off.

The iPad will charge via usb but is much slower than via the dedicated iPad charger. When plugged into a standard USB type charger or into a computer USB port the iPad will say its not charging but it is just slowly. {edit}BTW If you leave the iPad turned on and in use when its charging this way it takes forever to charge, so its best not to use it whilst its charging like this {edit}

I tend to use the dedicated iPad charger and charge my iPad over night when the iPad is in sleep. (i.e turned off but not shutdown)_________________Phil

Ditto. If itís directly charge to its dedicated charger itíll be around 4 to 6 hours. If itís through the USB/computer, itíll take longer, around 15 hours I think. Itíll save power and time if you do use its own charger directly.